April 12, 2005
The Road to Tourneyland: April’s Multiplayer Magic League Report
By Mark Ortego

I am currently working on my Level One DCI Judges Certification and am getting the chance to do events to get experience under my belt. This past Saturday I was at PTQ London in Butler, PA working under and being observed by a Level 5 judge (I’m not sure I’m allowed to use his name but he’s pretty famous up here in the Ohio Valley and in the DCI Judges world). Anyway, this conflicted with GASP’s Open Game Day which is when we hold our MML game for the month. So I asked Steve (the guy who plays 3 inch high decks) to keep record of the game and maybe some flavor notes for me to use in an article. Unfortunately he had an injury that prevented him from attending the game. So here’s what our former “Rogue League” chairperson (Stan) wrote to me:

quote:Steve had an injury that kept him from attending this month's Games
Day, so Pastor Mark kept track of the massive 4-player MML game. Here
is what he told me.

Humpf! Sure, I’m always up for a challenge. So, here we go, with only the information above and my **limited** imagination.

First off, let’s examine the players and their style of play by looking at what they’ve played in the past:

**Megan – She is well known for playing her infamous 2 inch high, un-sleeved, Sliver deck, after all she is known as the “Sliver Queen”. In this deck I have seen the following:
~Sliver Queen
~Brooding Sliver
~Winged Sliver
~Toxin Sliver
~Fanning the Flames
~Propaganda

However, I did notice during the February game that she may not have an effective way for mana acceleration or diversity. I’ve been told by the other players that her deck is slow ‘out-of-the-gate’ but when it starts to get its MOJO on then its neigh unstoppable. I can only surmise that the former is what happened with this game. With four players, having a “SLOW” deck is not good.

Her demise was via “poison” counters. Hmm, maybe she never got out a Crystalline Sliver to make her sliver creatures “un-targetable”. This can only attest to the fact that playing a 60 card deck is good no matter what. Also, the metagame is everything when choosing a deck to play in multiplayer games. I have several different types of multiplayer decks, they break down into three categories:
1.) Control Decks made specifically to handle creatures en masse with 5 or more players
2.) Control Decks made with ‘spot removal’ for those three to four player games
3.) Control Decks for “Emperor” games
All 60 or 61 card decks. I never leave home without several of these in my bag. BTW, did ever mention that I like control decks?

**Adrian – In the past Adrian has played some interesting decks such as the time he played Naked Singularity,…..um, YEAH! That was also the time when he Had-to-go from the game. He’s also the only player who’s been showing up with cards from the Kamigawa sets like Ninja’s and such. His decks haven’t exactly been ‘focused’ but he’s done okay.

Having a themed deck with Poison Counters can only mean that Jim is helping him build decks. If he played with poison counters and that being his only “win” condition then he may have played straight green which would’ve allowed him to play Fog type cards, Enchantment/Artifact removal, and mana acceleration. But his death was via “Trample” creatures, so his defense must’ve been weak. If I played a Poison Deck I’d have wall creatures like: Wall of Blossoms & Wall of Roots. I might have splashed white for life gain but come to think of it, green has life spells, too.

Adrian’s skill level as a player has improved over the past several months but Pastor Mark is a master player who knows how to eliminate opponents via logical strategy.

**Pastor Mark – He was the Grand Mage from last year’s Rogue League (First place), his decks in the past have either been Black/Green with Syphon Souls and big fatty creatures and a lick of spot removal in the way of Terror’s and Naturalizes or he likes to play Red/Green. His R/G deck has been strong in the past with a lot of big trampling creatures backed up with burn spells. I’m sure that’s what he played for this game.

He’s a cunning warrior, a very smart highly intelligent person with skills. And though this has been to his advantage in many games it also has been his bane. However, its players like me who play control decks and mess with other players strategies, just for the fun of it, that makes it very hard on those who are….how should I say,……..logical.

MuWhahahahahahahaha!!!!!!

Like the game of Chess he paces himself almost assuming none others are aware, which some aren’t but I always am (heh-heh). I have wrecked his day many-a-time. To die against a Soldier deck he must’ve either not been able to attack Jim or just let him go for some other reason.

Jim – Jim did great several months ago with his Zombie deck and he’s an excellent player. He knows the rules very well and has had his way with many opponents (except for me, of course ). If Jim played soldiers and won then he must’ve played it very low-key at first, slowly building his army and playing Glorious Anthem. I’d be willing to bet he also splashed green for things like Armadillo Cloak and Fog.

I’d also be willing to bet he had first strike creatures which forced Mark, Megan and Adrian to attack each other instead of him. This is an excellent strategy, having your opponent’s do your ‘dirty work’ and then you come in for the kill with a swarm of Soldiers. Heck, maybe he had pro-red creatures or enchantments that protected them from burn spells which run a plenty in our games. He’s sneaky like that!

So, what REALLY happened during April’s MML game? I don’t know but if I’ve been paying attention like I think I have, then; the above is a very good or close possibility.

Our new point system seems to really favor aggressive decks. As you can see my placement is slowly dropping. I play control decks which only net me higher placement points but low on Kill points. A deck that can achieve both high Placement and Kill Points would be ideal.

Sam’s Red/Green Urza-tron deck really proved to be effective and I admire it for being both an aggressive & control style deck. I want to build one similar but with my own touch. However, I’m not comfortable with that style of play, too aggressive for me .

You can also see that a spread is starting to form:
1st. thru 4th. Place there is a 4 Game Point spread (Leading pack)
5th. thru 7th. Place is a 3 Game Point spread (Middle of the pack)
8th. thru 9th. Place is at the bottom with a one point difference.

Well, as always, you can find this article at these two places:
http://www.casualplayers.org
or
http://www.GASPgamer.com Newsletter/April’s edition.